Tag: Rex Ray

To Do List: June

Jun 1, 2023 In: To Do List Tags: Alicia McCarthy, Amy Elkins, Eamon Ore-Giron, Gordon Parks, Isaac Julien, Jeffrey Gibson, Libby Black, Muzae Sesay, Rex Ray, SF Camerawork, Teresa Baker By: Kerri Hurtado, Curator

L: Isaac Julien “Black Madonna / New Negro Aesthetic” Inkjet print on Canson Platine Fibre Rag R: Jeffrey Gibson “I DON’T WANT TO LOSE YOUR LOVE” Cold press watercolor paper, studio ephemera, archival pigment prints on cotton, acrylic paint, two vintage beaded panels, vintage beaded belt buckle, vintage silver charm, glass beads, nylon thread and muslin. Images courtesy of Jessica Silverman Gallery.

June 1 to July 22 – Isaac Julien: Once Again…(Statues Never Die) and Jeffrey Gibson: Once More with Feeling at Jessica Silverman Gallery: Isaac Julien’s exhibition is inspired by the historical relationship between Alain Locke, a Harlem Renaissance philosopher, and Albert C. Barnes, a philanthropist known for championing African material and visual culture. Jeffrey Gibson will premiere nine new collages, incorporating found objects and images, beadwork, and textiles into intricate arrangements. Drawing on his Cherokee and Choctaw heritage throughout his varied practice, Gibson has turned to collage as a medium towards both self-discovery and inquiry into consumption, empowerment, and non-Western modes of relating to one another. The artist collects offcuts, paper scraps, objects, and imagery and stores them over decades in his studio. He assembles these disparate items to create new works, relating forgotten materials to the fractured history of Native peoples. Jessica Silverman Gallery is located at 621 Grant Avenue in San Francisco.

L: Eamon Ore Giron “Infinite Regress CXV (study 1)” mineral paint and flashe on linen, C: Libby Black “Chanel” charcoal and paint on paper, R: Teresa Baker “Two” oil pastel on paper. Images courtesy of Anthony Meier Gallery.

June 1 to August 1 – What’s That About curated by Saif Azzuz at Anthony Meier Gallery: This group exhibition curated by artist Saif Azzuz includes Bay Area artists whose practices have intersected with Azzuz’s during his time in the region. As evidenced by its title, the exhibition pushes back—through a direct and somewhat humorous acknowledgement—against the all-too-common practice of asking artists to explain what their work is about. By foregrounding the work’s physical properties and eschewing its conceptualization, Azzuz invites a more personal approach to the works on view, prompting viewers through the very absence of an ideational conceit to look more closely, think more deeply, and directly engage with the materials, processes, and emotional effects that cohere in each piece. Anthony Meier Gallery is located at 21 Throckmorton Avenue in Mill Valley.

L: Rex Ray “Cyphellae” painted and cut paper on oil. R: Zuzana Licko “Intersecting Figure #33” jacquard weaving. Images courtesy of Gallery 16.

June 2 to July 22 – Rex Ray and Zuzana Licko at Gallery 16: In the early 1990s, the San Francisco Bay Area was the epicenter of computer-based design. These two artists helped shape the future while straddling the fields of fine art and graphic design. Zuzana Licko founded Emigre magazine with her husband, fellow typographer and graphic designer Rudy VanderLans, in 1984. Emigre set the standard for digital typography and design and led to the creation of the Emigre Fonts type foundry, which is credited for being the first digital type foundry. Rex Ray (1956-2015) began his career as a graphic designer but soon devoted his studio practice to the making of handmade fine art. Ray was a beloved San Francisco artist and designer and major cultural force in the Bay Area. He was recognized worldwide for his distinct compositions, saturated colors, and unapologetic devotion to beauty. Gallery 16 is located at 501 3rd Street in San Francisco.

Guests bid on artwork at a previous auction.

Tuesday, June 6, 6 to 10 pm – Headlands Center for the Arts Benefit Art Auction at Fort Mason Center: Headlands’ Annual Benefit Art Auction features work by emerging and established artists and Headlands Alumni as well as unique, only-at-Headlands experience packages. With a silent auction culminating in the live auction and gala on June 6, this fundraising event supports the big ideas and innovative work that Headlands makes possible. Purchase tickets to the event here.

Gordon Parks “Untitled, Harlem, New York” archival pigment print. Image courtesy of McEvoy Foundation for the Arts.

June 16 to September 2 – What Are Words Worth? at McEvoy Foundation for the Arts: This exhibition explores the expansive holdings of artworks in the McEvoy Family Collection that engage language, literature, and typography. The exhibition’s title, borrowed from lyrics in the Tom Tom Club’s 1981 song “Wordy Rappinghood,” references the poet William Wordsworth (1770-1850). Expanding upon this playful reference to poetry, the modern and contemporary photographs, paintings, and prints on view examine the many fascinating ways that words can stimulate imagination and creativity. McEvoy Foundation for the Arts is located at 1150 25th Street in San Francisco.

L: Alicia McCarthy “Untitled” acrylic and spray paint on panel. R: Muzae Sesay ”Rare Salmon” oil, oil pastel, vinyl emulsion, acrylic, and colored pencil on canvas. Images courtesy of Pt.2 Gallery.

June 24 to July 29 – Alicia McCarthy and Muzae Sesay at Pt.2 Gallery: Pt.2 Gallery is featuring two solo shows by Oakland based artists. Alicia McCarthy engages with the immediate world around her and uses a decidedly focused color palette on mixed-media panels. Sincere and intense but also playful, McCarthy transforms found wood surfaces into bursts, geometric blocks of color and woven patterns that are often emphasized by text and spray paint. Muzae Sesay’s artistic focus derives from a relentless commitment to understanding our collective relationship to space, memory, community, and the perceived truths within them. His current work connects with the feelings that arise from testing the absoluteness of the strict and rigid aspects of physics and pragmatism found in architecture, design, and our built environment. Utilizing skewed perspectives of space and shape collapsed into two-dimensional planes of color, he creates surreal geometric interiors, exteriors, landscapes, and structures—presenting a situation in which to be experienced and explored. Pt.2 Gallery is located at 1523b Webster Street in Oakland.

Amy Elkins “Mishopshno/Carpenteria, Coastal Bluffs” photograph. Image courtesy of SF Camerawork.

Ongoing to August 5 – Forecast 2023 at SF Camerawork: This is SF Camerawork’s annual survey exhibition. Each year SF Camerawork invites an esteemed jury of artists, curators and critics to select and showcase the work of emerging imagemakers, with an eye toward current movements, trends and concerns in contemporary photography. This year, Bay Area artists Ashima Yadava and Minoosh Zomorodinia have selected the work of Mary Campbell, Harvey Castro, Amy Elkins, Shao-Feng Hsu (Juror’s Choice Award), Kei Ito, and Helia Pouyanfar from over 180 entries from around the world. SF Camerawork is located at Fort Mason Center for Arts, 2 Marina Blvd, building A in San Francisco.

July To Do List

Jun 30, 2020 In: To Do List Tags: Adam Chin, Alanna Airitam, Christopher Martin, Cult Exhibitions, Eamon Ore-Giron, Elise Ferguson, Erica Deeman, Ever Gold [Projects], Friends Indeed Gallery, Gallery 16, Headlands Center for the Arts, Hosfelt Gallery, Jamil Hellu, MoAD, Nicki Green, Rebekah Goldstein, Rex Ray, Romer Young Gallery, SF Camerawork, Tim Hawkinson By: Kerri Hurtado, Curator

We are happy to share that galleries are starting to re-open by appointment with limited hours. Remember to always check with the gallery before making a visit. Masks are required and limited visitors are allowed inside. This is a great opportunity to see local art in-person in a safe environment!

IN PERSON

Eamon Ore-Giron, “Infinite Regress CXVI”, 2020. Image courtesy of Friends Indeed Gallery.

Ongoing to August 14– Eamon Ore-Giron: Conspirateurs at Friends Indeed Gallery: The paintings marry the aesthetics of indigenous and craft traditions with 20th-century Avant Garde, seeking to rethink the canon of Western art history. The title of the exhibition, Conspirateurs, comes from an 18th-century board game invented after the French Revolutionary Wars, a period of urgent political activity much like today. The point of the game is to bring as many people as possible into sanctuary by moving pieces, that represent people, to the periphery of a gridded board. Colored spaces at the center of the board offer secret meeting areas for revolutionaries in hiding. Ore-Giron’s painting can be understood as being comprised of architectural forms. Each painting has fixed points and various elements, and the viewer is invited to decode the works. Friends Indeed Gallery is located at 716 Sacramento Street.

Tim Hawkinson, “LeMans”, 2020. Image courtesy of Hosfelt Gallery.

July 20 to August 29– Tim Hawkinson: Tantric Drip Drawings at Hosfelt Gallery: The word “tantra,” Sanskrit for “loom” or “weave,” is a metaphor for Hindu and Buddhist spiritual practices that bring together rituals, texts and teachings to guide understanding of the universe and a person’s place within it. To create this group of large-scale drawings, Hawkinson constructed a contraption that functions in much the same way as a tattooist’s needle. Using it to squirt India ink, he makes straight lines upon sheets of paper mounted on a turntable that’s fixed flat to the wall. He drips his ink, spins the paper and repeats the process from different angles to construct complex geometric forms that bulge and bend across the picture plane. Each, constructed though the ritualistic buildup of lines, is a token of Hawkinson’s idiosyncratic practice. Hosfelt Gallery is located at 260 Utah Street.

Rex Ray, “Physconia”. Image courtesy of Gallery 16.

July 10 to August 30– Rex Ray, Cut and Paste at Gallery 16: Rex Ray was an important American artist whose career blossomed in San Francisco in the late 1980s. A major cultural force in the art, literary, and activist communities in the Bay Area, he was recognized for his signature work in collage and his pop aesthetic. The exhibition will showcase never before seen paintings, collages, and prints that demonstrate his incredible relationship with composition, color, and collage. Gallery 16 is located at 501 Third Street.

Elise Ferguson, “Lilly”, 2018. Image courtesy of Romer Young Gallery.

July 25 to September 12– Elise Ferguson: Works on Paper Survey 2015-20 at Romer Young Gallery: Using pattern and color, along with a range of process-driven approaches and modern materials, Ferguson creates works based on mathematical puzzles and geometric variations that land somewhere at the intersection of painting, sculpture and printmaking. Romer Young Gallery is located at 1240 22nd Street.

ONLINE

Adam Chin, “Mugshot #45”. Image courtesy of the artist.

Wednesday, July 1, 6 to 7:30pm– Online Conversation: Is Your Face Your Own? AI, Facial Recognition, and the Arts at SF Camerawork: Facial recognition and Artificial Intelligence algorithms are already a part of our day to day lives. But these same technologies are used by governments, technology companies, and police departments in ways that raise serious concerns regarding our civil liberties and expectations of privacy. This event is an online conversation with a variety of artists and researchers who will discuss the current uses of facial recognition and AI in the public sphere and in criminal justice.

Alanna Airitam, New Work (Title TBD), 2020. Image courtesy of the artist.

July 1 and every Wednesday, 1 to 2pm– In The Artist’s Studio online series at Museum of African Diaspora (MoAD): Each Wednesday at 1pm PST, MoAD staff joins a different artist in their studio to see what they’re currently working on and how their work is changing as a result of the quarantine.

On July 1, artist Alanna Airitam will be giving a talk on generalized stereotypes and the lack of fair and equal representation of people of color in art spaces. Airitam researches critical historical omissions and how those contrived narratives represent and influence succeeding generations. Her photographic works ask the viewer to question who they are and how they choose to be seen.

Miguel Arzabe, “In Place”, 2020. Image courtesy of Ever Gold [Projects].

Ongoing to July 18– Bay Area Visual Artist Exhibition Production Relief Grant Online Exhibition at Ever Gold [Projects]: This online exhibition features the work of thirty grant finalists for the Exhibition Production Relief Grant. Artists whose Internet Archive Artist in Residency exhibition was canceled due to the pandemic will receive this relief grant to support lost exhibition production costs.

Erica Deeman, “Untitled 11”, 2014. Image courtesy of the artist and Headlands Center for the Arts.

July 9 to 21– Online Benefit Auction for Headlands Center for the Arts: This year, the Headlands auction will be held online and will feature works and creative experiences by over 80 artists. Proceeds will provide critical funding to Headlands and participating artists receive a 50% commission on the sale of their work. Headlands will also be donating 10% of proceeds and funds donated to Bay Area Organizations: Transgender Gender-Variant & Intersex Justice Project and Anti Police-Terror Project.

(left) Nicki Green, “Pansy Brick”, 2015. (middle) Jamil Hellu, “#BlackLivesMatter”, 2017. (right) Rebekah Goldstein, “Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop”, 2019. Images courtesy of CULT.

Ongoing until July 25– Beyond Words: Fundraising Exhibition at CULT Aimee Friberg Exhibitions: This Fundraiser will support Black-led organizations fighting for social justice and equity. 100% of sales from this exhibition will benefit the following organizations: Campaign Zero, The Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, Anti Police-Terror Project, National Bail Out, Black Mama’s Matter, Black Trans Advocacy Coalition, Black Voters Matter Fund, Color of Change.

Launch viewing room here.